Time for change.
Slow-motion real-dream far-away steamy-hot change.
Greetings beautiful ocean, sand, wind and waves
Forest fog, unfamiliar birdcalls and street dogs
Huge historical aura present spirit of revolution.
Parched prairie winter skin in love at first scent with velvet moist air
Desperate turning towards that sun-scorching feel

Lesson 1. Acclimatize quickly for full-immersion experience.

Diving to the depth of difference.
Every plant, creature, placement of constellations, face of the full moon
Every unfamiliar expression, gesture, sound, touch, routine-gone
The rocks, hillsides, farmers’ fields, rows of fantasy fruit and nut trees
Rice, beans, plantain, cassava, coffee, cane, pineapple, guava and grapefruit
Fading colours of flamboyant streetscapes, bustling cafés, flirting musicians.
No channeling thoughts, attempts at day-dreams fail, all scribbled notes illegible
Yet gravity pulls each footstep into the soul of this country

Lesson 2: Never shy away from deeper connection even if immediate. Sit in public spaces more often. Learn Spanish.

Ola! Havana!
Bus ride of extreme humanity bustle.
Old woman stares, smiles, disappears into the anonymous wave of moving bodies
Young men arguing about baseball apparently, clustered around, fists in the air
Music drifts salsa into everyone’s hips, organized kids playing games in boulevards
Artisans, street-workers, shop-keepers, walker-bys, who-knows-what, travelers
Even Che limps about, teeth-clenched cigar stub, thumbs-up, all-smiles, doing well.
Raise a cup of urban infused celebration, history, art, music, ideals
Full-on respect for the hurricane-weathering people of Cuba who dare to be different
Gratitude for the example, all the way.

Lesson 3: A socialist revolution and over half-century continuous socialist government undoubtedly the best thing for the majority of people here. (Yet, still the sharp pains of collectively living on earth.)

Violent sacred revolution
The right brain left brain plotting mutual (self) destruction
Each in a power play of authoritarian gaming,
Each willing to use tactics of control-culture and grand-theft identity
For the factory worker, the young holiday prostitute, the blind street beggar
Attacked by the tragedy coincidence
Mutilated corpses of history, stripped of the liberty of life.
Beautiful deep and complex society,
If gun to the head, you are commanded to “Make Change Now”
Would you just do it in an instant of historical time?

Lesson 4: New and Improved Revolution for the 21st Century. Patient planning and implementing with realistic feedback loops. And please, no guns.

Driving through the countryside, towns filled with milling folks
Greeting, clasping hands, laughing, selling certain essential things roadside
Clever, virility-boosting, hand-made, multi-generational mode
Towns surrounded by oxygen-boost greenery, little pockets of human-scale farming
Many more trotting cart ponies, bike trolleys, walkers, motorcycles and busses
Than half-century old minty American cars from before the revolution
Many small businesses, much creative simplicity, getting-the-thing-done
Web-like energy, practical, make-it-from-nothing, who-needs-it-anyway
Needs to happen gradually, the same momentum that builds a jungle:
Every little energy pulse working its own way into harmonious flow

Lesson 5: Nation state self-identity building independence post-Soviet communism, who-cares-about American embargo, too bad about the crash in the 90’s. But the real telltale is how a country gets itself out of a crash cause we’re all going to start crashing harder faster.

Let’s just face it: colonialism happened
Five-star, marble, mirrors, angels in clouds, garlands.
The money grub of addiction, steel on concrete progress
Need antidote to puke-scaled plastic consumerist amnesia
Collapsing colonial morphs into capitalist feudal money machine, back to that again.
No diplomatic transformation possible, sickness of excess
Now must rescue each and every drunken, unaccomplished, lost-at-sea soul
From the death stench of its pollution
Wandering a darkened maze, handcuffed to history,
No moon, stars or planets to guide

Lesson 6: Move on! Follow momentum. Until the revolution is complete.

Liberation
Full-moon balanced dichotomies:
Hunter-lover, soul-spirit, identity-homogeny, you-me, sadness-joy
Fall into the ecstasy of madness-wholeness-everything
Love’s molecular invasion, overthrowing internal government of the self
Soft quiet rain on shiny brilliant coloured flowers
Crafting words doesn’t even begin to catch the great wave of it
Hurricane of meaning and metaphor
Shooting star, make a wish: please let it all be…
If it could only all be…

Lesson 7: If only one revolution, let it be internal. Consult the moon.

Just as suddenly back home
So cold, endless flat white
Hard frozen edges hurt the still-sad heart and ice-jammed lungs
Darkness, stillness, unnatural warmth not really warm enough
Demanding reality, limp is back, skin parched again, dreams so harsh
Everything back to death-night-black or glaring-day-white
Lonely for change
(Quietly whispers Hope: “And yet…”)

Lesson 8: Everything possible in poetry. “J’espère qu’après ma mort, mon esprit opérera de résultats pratiques.” Louis Riel

Baby steps for a 21st Century global-social-eco-revolution:
Government… well, maybe, probably not, suppose we should try anyway… otherwise,
Break down systemic calcifications (or down-size or eliminate where possible)
Plant and grow small-scale communities to share primary goods and services
Mass psychological healing away from addiction-consumerism and greed
Re-division of wealth by slow-but-extreme taxation or
If not (because of situation with government – see above) Robin Hood it all the way
Build strength in numbers through authenticity of values
Expand all existing natural eco-systems by connective corridors
Create just and ample local, organic food system
Build homes for all – really, people, can you imagine being homeless in Winnipeg?!?
Increase personal resilience through friendships, natural immune-boosters and spirit
Manifest personal liberation in each thought and every action

Lesson 9: Each step as ahead as possible, as balanced as possible.